Richard Tagle

What we talked about

Every data point has a human story

A missed school day can begin with a transportation problem, a toothache or a fear of being bullied. Richard Tagle, president and executive director of E3 Alliance, uses those examples to explain why education data needs a human reading. In this Making Names conversation with Aidan Evans, he describes E3 as a backbone organization for Central Texas's cradle-to-career work. The organization helps schools, nonprofits and other partners understand their data, then decide what to do with it. Knowing that attendance has fallen is a start. Understanding why a child is absent is what makes a useful response possible.

Changing who gets access to advanced math

Tagle points to advanced-math placement as an example of how a change in process can open opportunities. He describes students who performed well in elementary math but did not enter advanced classes because enrollment depended on students or parents opting in. An automatic-placement approach puts qualifying students on that pathway unless they opt out. In the interview, Tagle reports that the first year of the statewide approach brought 52,000 more middle-school students into advanced math. He connects access to those classes with later postsecondary participation, describing a correlation rather than a guarantee that any one course determines a student's future.

Workforce preparation begins before high school

For Tagle, workforce readiness starts in early childhood. Access to health care and early learning helps shape the opportunities a young person will have much later. He argues for a supported journey through school that gives students room to discover possible careers before graduation forces a decision. His own path helps explain that interest. Raised around relatives in finance and engineering, he initially pursued finance. A college class about nongovernmental organizations introduced him to work he had not known existed. Curiosity about how people organize to help others eventually led him through public health and into education.

Following a founder without copying her

Tagle's relationship with E3 began before he became its leader. While heading the Andy Roddick Foundation, he worked with E3 to examine the value of after-school and summer programs. He later helped the organization develop an earned-revenue strategy. Asked about succeeding founder Susan Dawson, he separates carrying forward the mission from trying to become the same person. His focus is on how students, families and teachers can work together at each campus: understand their results, choose a feasible benchmark and identify the support needed to reach it. Community partners can then help remove the barriers they identify.

Public schools are a shared responsibility

The conversation ends with a case for caring about schools even without children enrolled in them. Tagle points to the graduates people hire and the professionals they rely on throughout their lives. He also wants education conversations to be easier to understand. Technical language about accountability can obscure the question families are asking: is their child learning something useful? His invitation is to understand the information, ask what could improve and take part in the work. A data point becomes useful when people can act on the story behind it.